bluetoothctl No default controller available

Question

It\'s a bit wired here.

I have a problem is bluetoothctl always said \"No default controller available\". I found there are many people had same problem with me. But th

Answer 1

The answer above probably works on some distributions, but may get you into trouble in others. Unfortunately, it seems that every distribution has a different default configuration for Bluetooth - it's a pretty awful mess IMHO.

Here's what worked for me on a Debian derivative Raspberry Pi OS (née Raspbian):

As a preliminary check, on many distros you can check /etc/group to see if a group name bluetooth exists:

$ cat /etc/group | grep blue

If it exists, you obviously don't need to add the group, only add users to the group:

$ sudo usermod -G bluetooth -a 

In the distro I'm using, this was all that was required to make the Controller responsive in bluetoothctl.